A Review of the Gathering Storm

After almost five years of waiting the twelfth book finally arrived even though it wasn’t written by Jordan himself which is a shame. It would most likely have been different if it had been written by him completely and not just partially by him and partially by Brandon. Well, it’s done anyway and let’s see what I can say about it…

Well, over all, the book at first (my first read through) seemed to challenge the Knife of Dreams, the previous book. Knife of Dreams was, according to me, the best book since The Lord of Chaos which before that was the best book in the entire series. But on my second read of the book I’ve decided that it lies somewhere in between Lord of Chaos and Knife of dreams instead. Partially because of some wordings that I’m certain Brandon used that annoyed me but also because the book was not as explosive and daunting as Knife of Dreams.

But I am not disappointed, Brandon have done a good job in finishing this even though I feel like he’s been hurrying up some scenes that Jordan would have done differently. There were a lot of answers in this book two, and many resolutions to plotlines we’ve waited to be solved for over six books now. But well, Brandon did a good job and I hope he’ll be able to do a good job with the other two books as well.

The pace of the book was something that was about the best things in this book that we’ll probably have Brandon to thank for. Jordan’s pace is really as this depending on the book. But looking at Knife of Dreams Jordan made it like one intense book with many bursts evenly placed in the book, beginning with the exciting start in the prologue and then just going down and building up towards the next and the next, and the next. It was like a five chain combo where you just let your breath out between the strikes and just when you think it’s over he strikes again. This book though was more like high tide waves before the tidal wave hits and then finishing with the slower, but not less important or less shaking after wave.

Well, I prefer Knife of Dreams kind of way, but I think that would have made this book too much with the importance of every event. It would be like overflowing with too much ecstasy and you would in the end be so dulled by all the awesomeness and tragedy that the next event wouldn’t be as important and as thrilling. I discovered that with reading this book. Knife of Dreams made my expectations for this book to be the same, but this book is more significant in the understanding and the involvement of the deepest level of things that’s been left unsolved for more than half of the series so far. You can feel the end approaching and you can feel the people of the book.

Some things though are to shallow and to brief in this book. Things that I think Brandon left out just because he felt it didn’t fit. Something Jordan wouldn’t have done. He would have given more to it, but then most likely Jordan would have written a lot more than Brandon that actually tries to tie this up as Jordan would have liked it, but with his own style.

It is approximately one year until the next book will be released in the middle of November 2010 and yet another year for the last book. I look forward to them and finally my uncertainty about Brandon in Jordans book have been dulled. He does not destroy and he really tries to understand and express the world as Jordan would have wanted, and he does it in his own way. Well, for those who have access to my server I would recommend to download the audio books of Brandon, I have both the Mistborn and the Elantris series there. And for those who want to “read” The Gathering Storm, the audio book of the book is there too. I’ll soon put up the Comic that’s been released too.

Well, well…